The moment Lin Yuan stepped outside the white circle, the smile on Gildarts' face faded a little.
It was neither contempt nor hostility.
He had simply, at last, come to regard the youth before him as an examinee he needed to take seriously.
"The rules are the same as before." Makarov turned the hourglass over. "Begin."
Lin Yuan did not rush for the flag immediately.
He first raised his right hand and folded the distance between himself and the flagpole inward. The moment the black-and-silver ripples crossed the white line, Crush True Magic lit up beneath Gildarts' feet.
The folded space abruptly fractured into dozens of pieces.
Lin Yuan's hand remained where it was, but a jolt of numbness ran through his fingertips as they were pushed back.
"Just like the first round," Gildarts said. "As long as magic passes by me, I can crush it."
"In the first round, you only cut off my hair."
"So you want to take something else this time?"
"No need." Lin Yuan touched the gap in his hair above his forehead, where it had yet to grow back fully. "I'll take the flag."
Laxus scoffed from the sidelines. "Enough with the chatter."
Lightning had barely begun to spark from his shoulders when Makarov punched him in the leg. "You've already finished your exam, so be quiet!"
Lin Yuan made his second move.
Three folds in space closed in at once from the left, right, and above. Gildarts swung his palm forward, and the black-and-silver ripples shattered layer by layer like glass, but none of them led to the flag.
The real Lin Yuan had already folded his position from one side to the other, darting into the white circle past Gildarts' side.
Gildarts swept his elbow back.
Lin Yuan raised an arm to block. The moment his body met Gildarts' elbow, a large section of his sleeve was crushed away. He used the force to retreat, stopping with his soles against the white line, with nothing but a reddened scrape left on his arm.
"Your body is pretty sturdy," Gildarts said, glancing at his elbow.
"Your magic isn't as slow as the rumors say, either."
"Someone said it was slow?"
"No. I just made that up."
Gildarts froze for half a beat.
In that half beat, Lin Yuan closed in again.
Zero-Distance Crushing Fist!
His fist crossed the gap between them and appeared directly in front of Gildarts' chest. For the first time, Gildarts leaned his upper body back, catching Lin Yuan's wrist from below with his palm.
The spatial fault and Crush True Magic collided head-on.
A piercing crack filled the hall. The zero distance Lin Yuan had constructed shattered inch by inch, starting at his fist, and the black stone beneath Gildarts' feet was broken down into countless cubes by the aftershock.
But his feet remained firmly inside the white circle.
"Seven minutes left," Makarov reminded them.
Lin Yuan took two steps back and did not continue his direct assault.
The three clashes had been enough for him to see clearly: Gildarts' Crush did not cover the entire hall out of nowhere. It first came into contact with magic power, then broke it down along the structure of the magic. The more direct the path, the faster it was crushed.
There was no way to open a complete passage past him.
Then he would leave no passage.
Lin Yuan bent down and pressed a hand against a piece of rubble, leaving a spatial mark on it before kicking it to the right.
Gildarts glanced at it but did not make a move.
A second piece, a third, a fourth.
More and more pieces of rubble rolled toward the area around the white circle. Lin Yuan kept changing position, each time leaving behind a fold in space so brief it was almost imperceptible.
"Planning to use those stones as landing points?" Laxus asked.
Lin Yuan did not answer.
When the ninth piece of rubble landed, he suddenly raised his hand. All the marks lit up at once, and nine folding paths led toward the flag from different directions.
Gildarts clapped his palms together.
With a roar, the nine pieces of rubble were crushed along with the spatial paths. Black-and-silver specks of light filled the white circle, but Lin Yuan himself charged in through the disintegrating magic power.
Gildarts threw a right punch.
The punch sealed off the last position in front of the flag. Whether Lin Yuan folded to the left or the right, he would hit Crush True Magic first.
But Lin Yuan did not change direction.
He opened his mouth and bit down on a black-and-silver speck of light that was breaking apart in front of him.
The shattered space made a crisp sound between his teeth, then turned into a vast surge of magic power that poured into his body. The hall abruptly changed before Lin Yuan's eyes: the stone pillars, the white line, and the flag all became interconnected distances.
He swallowed the shortest stretch of them in a single gulp.
Gildarts' fist grazed his shoulder.
Bang!
Lin Yuan was blasted out of the white circle, rolling several times through the rubble before coming to a stop. Makarov had already risen to his feet, and lightning burst out around Laxus as well.
But Gildarts did not pursue him.
He turned to look behind him.
All that remained where the flagpole had stood ten steps away was an empty hole.
Lin Yuan lay on his back outside the circle, his right shoulder hurting so badly he could barely lift it, but his left hand held the Fairy Tail Guild flag firmly.
Less than half the sand remained in the hourglass.
Makarov checked his shoulder and, after confirming it was only a bruise from the impact, stamped the third red mark onto the wooden plaque.
"Pass."
Laxus stared at the flag. "When did you touch it?"
"The last time."
"You never even got past Gildarts."
Lin Yuan pushed himself up into a sitting position and laid the Guild flag across his knees.
From where he had reached out to the flagpole, there had originally been a full ten steps.
He looked at Laxus and answered as though it were obvious.
"Because those ten steps no longer existed."